Alzheimer's Plaques Imaged in Living Brains 61
Yves writes "Japanese scientists have developed a technique to detect traces of Alzheimer's disease (amyloid plaques in the brain) on living mice... Until now, the standard way to confirm the presence of the plaques, and thus the disease, was by autopsy. The question remains: Do you really want to know early that you have Alzheimer disease, as there is no effective treatment yet?"
Personally (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Personally (Score:1, Flamebait)
But they are! It is called death. Death is really just like "quick Alzheimers".
All your memories are going to go down the drain and you won't realize it. Or are you one of the delusionals that believes otherwise?
Re:Narcotic Abuse? (Score:1)
Re:Personally (Score:1)
Phosphatidylcholine (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Phosphatidylcholine (Score:4, Interesting)
"The only statistically significant result was in favour of placebo for adverse events, based on one trial, which appears likely to be a spurious result. "
However, other results were;
"Alzheimer's disease sufferers have been found to have a lack of the enzyme responsible for converting choline into acetylcholine within the brain. Lecithin is a major dietary source of choline, so extra consumption may reduce the progression of dementia."
"The Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group's Specialized Register was searched on 15 May 2002 using the terms lecithin and phosphaditylcholine."
Want to know? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Want to know? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Want to know? (Score:2, Informative)
I know what you meant, but you should tighten up your semantics before some insensitive clod mentions that this isn't necessarily a good thing.
Re:Want to know? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Want to know? (Score:5, Interesting)
Even if I lose the memories inside my head, I'll have them recorded, so they won't be gone.
It's like knowing when you're going to die, except, it's knowing when a certain part of you is going to die.
Re:Want to know? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Want to know? (Score:2)
I just don't think it's going to matter that much to you once you've passed on to the great recycling box in the ground. Death is inevitable, doesn't matter if its alzheimer's, or natural causes.
That would be fantastic for your family if they had some kind of record for every person in their family. That kind of thing should be done regardless of diseases.
Re:Want to know? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Want to know? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Want to know? (Score:2)
For public healthcare? I do, and I do so gladly. Like most of the civilised world.
Re:Want to know? (Score:3, Interesting)
My Primary Care Physician has offered many tests to me "under the table" for that very reason.
Re:Want to know? (Score:4, Insightful)
Isn't it great when you have to sneak around the healthcare system to feel safe.
Re:Want to know? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hell yeah (Score:4, Funny)
Why not? I'll forget it pretty soon anyway!
No effective treatment?? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:No effective treatment?? (Score:1)
Re:No effective treatment?? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:No effective treatment?? (Score:5, Informative)
Original research paper in Cell: Environmental Enrichment Reduces Alpha-Beta Levels and Amyloid Deposition in Transgenic Mice [cell.com]
Summary in Cell: Exercise Your Amyloid [sciencedirect.com]
Article in Medical News Today [medicalnewstoday.com]
Quote: Mice that keep their brains and bodies busy in an "enriched" environment of chew toys, running wheels, and tunnels have lower levels of the peptides and brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease compared to mice raised in more sparse conditions, according to a new study in the 11 March issue of the journal Cell.
Levels of b-amyloid peptides, which clump together to form the brain "tangles" or plaques that are toxic to nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease, were significantly lower in the enriched mice, say Sangram Sisodia, of the University of Chicago, and colleagues. The enriched mice may have been better equipped than their less-stimulated counterparts to sweep these peptides out of the brain, according to the researchers' analysis of gene and enzyme expression in the animals.
"This goes back to the old idea of use it or lose it, that using your brain keeps it more active," Sisodia says. "It's more common sense than anything, but what we didn't previously appreciate is that it might affect the pathology that is characteristic of Alzheimer's disease."
The researchers also found intriguing clues that an active body, as well as an active brain, might be a key factor in reaping the benefits of an enriched environment. The most physically active of the mice in the elaborately furnished cages had the most dramatic reductions in amyloid peptides and deposits. At least among this small group of mouse workout devotees, "exercise appears to play a significant role in modulating amyloid deposition," Sisodia and colleagues write.
The researchers caution, however, that it will take more experiments with larger numbers of animals to determine exactly how enriched environments benefit mice, whether through increased physical activity, a boost in visual, social, and spatial stimuli that awaken the brain, or some combination of all of these factors.
Sisodia says exercise, along with any kind of mental activity from reading to doing the crossword puzzle, are probably the equivalent of chew toys and running wheels for humans. "It's all very important in keeping the mind active and potentially staving off effects of old age."
Re:No effective treatment?? (Score:2)
Definitly (Score:2)
To prepare you have to know (Score:1)
Make your Backups early and often. (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, and a joke to ensure me going to Hell (Score:3, Funny)
An older couple began to notice that they were forgetting things, so they decided to take a memory course together. They took the course and were simply thrilled with the results. One day while shopping in a local store, they met a friend. "Bill, you just have to take this memory course. It's fantastic ! It's changed our lives," the husband said. "Wow, that's great ! What's the name of the course?" The husband turned to his wife and asked, "Honey, what's the name of that flower with the long stem and thorns?" "You mean a rose?" she replied. "Yes, that's right." (PAUSE) "Rose, what's the name of that memory course we took?"
Ask your self instead (Score:1, Redundant)
Do you wanna know you have cancer, if you cannot be treated?
Excuse me, but the question " Do you really want to know early that you have Alzheimer disease, as there is no effective treatment yet?"" is not a very smart one.
Re:Ask your self instead (Score:1)
If your post was rhetorical, and indicated that you would never want to know those things, then fine, but others have their own right to choose, and many will choose
Even though we can already test... (Score:1)
We can tell from the moment of your birth whether or not you will end up with it (provided you live long enough for it to take hold).
The thing that exites me about this is that we may be able to study how it builds up, maybe understand the disease more (the biggest step toward curing a disease is to understand it).
Re:Even though we can already test... (Score:1, Informative)
Seeing this in the Family.. (Score:1)
My father has always said, after watching his grandmother go out that way: "If that ever happens to me, just let me wander out onto a dark highway, and hope i get hit by something big".
hit by something big (Score:2)
There are much cleaner ways of doing the job.
that's not the only issue (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:that's not the only issue (Score:1)
thats why I've always had a little bit of a thing against these tests to find out if you carry the genome that means you'll get "this disease" or "that addiction".
Think about it: now-a-days, you get nailed in insurance if you drink/smoke/use drugs. Whats to say that in the very near future, you dont get dinged for having a higher risk of drinking/smoking/doing drugs?
Already... (Score:2)
I can understand a policy forbidding smoking near your place of employment - bu
Re:that's not the only issue (Score:1)
Re:that's not the only issue (Score:1)
not so sure (Score:1)
Re:not so sure (Score:2)
PubMed reference [nih.gov]
Personally, I wouldn't call New Scientist a garbage journal by the way, its aim isn't to be a strict scientific journal, but rather to bring news about science to the reasonably well educated masses. A bit like Nature was before they split off into many many subjournals.
Re:not so sure (Score:1)
Story about reversal in mice. (Score:2)
Maybe something will come of it.
Not a case of "want to know or not" (Score:4, Insightful)
-- Being able to positively identify the plaques while a person is alive is instrumental to being able to determine the effectiveness of any proposed treatment in a timely manner. A patient could have symptoms of Alzheimers and participate in a treatment study -- if the symptoms miraculously dissapear, there would not be any way to positively determine if the treatment itself helped, or even if Alzheimers was the cause of the symptoms in the first place -- at least not until many years later when an autopsy might happen to confirm an earlier diagnosis.
Already done.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yawn.
Maybe... (Score:1)
Re:Maybe... (Score:2)
No early treatment? (Score:1)
Sez you! I brush twice daily with a brainpaste that inhibits plaque development!
Fuggheddaboudit (Score:2)